Formula One: Lando Norris believes McLaren can improve plenty after finishing second in British Grand Prix

McLarenimpressed with their new-found speed at Silverstone on Sunday but LandoNorriswarned there wouldstillbe times when they looked painfully slow. Norrisfinished second behind Red Bull's runaway championship leader Max Verstappen for the team's first podium appearance in the 10th race of a season they started on the back foot. HisMcLarenteammate Oscar Piastri finished fourth.

"It was amazing to watch how good his car was in high speed," commented Mercedes' seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, who finished third after chasingNorristo the chequered flag. "ThatMcLarenis a rocket ship. At high speed it was insane."

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Norrisfelt the aerodynamically upgraded Mercedes-powered car was indeed very competitive, and almost on a par withdominant Red Bull on the high-speed parts of the circuit. "Towards the medium speed (areas) like Stowe, I would say we're close to being the best car on the grid," he said. "But wedohavea poor car and I say poor, I would say pretty terrible, in the slow-speed corners. Extremely difficult to drive.

"We're going to go to a couple of tracks coming up where I'm sure people are going to be saying, 'Whathaveyoudone now?' Like, 'How has it got so bad all of a sudden?' "It's just this track’s allowed us to look after the tyres nicely, keep them in a good condition. Simple as that. So a lot of it is track-specific."

McLarenmoved up to fifth overall in the standings, ahead of Renault-owned Alpine who failed to score a point at Silverstone with two retirements. Ferrari are fourth and 98 points furtherdown the road. The podium was the team's first at Silverstone since Hamilton in 2010.

"Idon't want to get too excited, but good thingshavecome from the upgrade," saidNorris."But there are stillplentyof things which are miles away from, say, competing in certain places with a Mercedes and as a whole package competing even with a Red Bull. So a lot moreworkto bedone from both of those areas."

Team boss Andrea Stella said the indications were encouraging butMcLarenhad also surprised themselves by being able to keep ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes. "I think wehaveto acknowledge that the improvement seems to be genuine here in terms of race pace," said the Italian, who added that the cooler temperatures also helped with tyre management.

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